1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information distribution apparatus, an information distribution method, and a computer program therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-40061 discusses a conventional method for distributing program setting data from an information distribution apparatus to an information processing apparatus. More specifically, in the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-40061, the information processing apparatus updates a setting set thereto based on “data described in the format of a structured document, such as extended markup language (XML)”, which is received from the information distribution apparatus.
When data of a variable format is transmitted from an information processing apparatus to an information distribution apparatus, providing and executing a function for verifying whether the data to be transmitted and received has an appropriate format are to be performed.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-158753 discusses a method for verifying the format of data to be transmitted and received. In the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-158753, metadata type information is embedded in document data and the document data is transmitted together with the document data. Thus, in the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-158753, an apparatus that receives the document data and the metadata type information verifies whether the metadata and the type data is consistent with each other based on the metadata type information embedded in the document data.